Celebrate the Landing of the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover! The Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover will be landing in Gale Crater on Mars at 10:31pm PT / 11:31pm MT on August 5 / 12:31am CT / 1:31am ET on August 6! Curiosity is a rover that will assess whether Mars ever was, or is still today, an environment able to support microbial life. In other words, its mission is to determine the planet's "habitability." Determining past habitability on Mars gives NASA and the scientific community a better understanding of whether life could have existed on the red planet and, if it could have existed, an idea of where to look for it in the future. The Mars Science Laboratory rover will act as a robot geologist while it is on the surface of Mars. The science instruments it carries are state-of-the-art tools for acquiring information about the geology, atmosphere, environmental conditions, and potential biosignatures on Mars. The one-ton MINI-Cooper-sized vehicle is the largest rover ever sent to land on the surface of another planet. Get resources to help you celebrate this important mission milestone from these NASA websites:
http://www.nasa.gov/mars. Resources, recent and archived videos, updates and news, images, podcasts, and more can all be found here!
MSL pages: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl. Get the latest about the rover and its onboard laboratory through news, images, and videos. Find out where the rover is now, and follow Curiosity on Twitter and Facebook!
Solar System Exploration’s Curiosity: A Big Rover on a Bold Mission website: http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/msl_landing.cfm. Videos, press kits and fact sheets, links to relevant Mars and NASA websites, social media, images, interactives, and resources for teachers and students are all available through this page.
The Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover will be landing in Gale Crater on Mars at 10:31pm PT / 11:31pm MT on August 5 / 12:31am CT / 1:31am ET on August 6!
Curiosity is a rover that will assess whether Mars ever was, or is still today, an environment able to support microbial life. In other words, its mission is to determine the planet's "habitability." Determining past habitability on Mars gives NASA and the scientific community a better understanding of whether life could have existed on the red planet and, if it could have existed, an idea of where to look for it in the future. The Mars Science Laboratory rover will act as a robot geologist while it is on the surface of Mars. The science instruments it carries are state-of-the-art tools for acquiring information about the geology, atmosphere, environmental conditions, and potential biosignatures on Mars. The one-ton MINI-Cooper-sized vehicle is the largest rover ever sent to land on the surface of another planet.
Get resources to help you celebrate this important mission milestone from these NASA websites:
- http://www.nasa.gov/mars. Resources, recent and archived videos, updates and news, images, podcasts, and more can all be found here!
- MSL pages: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl. Get the latest about the rover and its onboard laboratory through news, images, and videos. Find out where the rover is now, and follow Curiosity on Twitter and Facebook!
- Solar System Exploration’s Curiosity: A Big Rover on a Bold Mission website: http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/msl_landing.cfm. Videos, press kits and fact sheets, links to relevant Mars and NASA websites, social media, images, interactives, and resources for teachers and students are all available through this page.
ChristineChristine Shupla
Formal Education Lead
Lunar and Planetary Institute
3600 Bay Area Blvd
Houston, TX 77058
281-486-2135
shupla@lpi.usra.edu
www.lpi.usra.edu/education